Conclusion Ap Biology Lab 5

Matt Miller
Shipley
AP Biology
October 18, 2009
Lab Five Cell Respiration Conclusion
Throughout the entire lab I learned many interesting ideas related to cellular respiration. The rates of cellular respiration are greater in germinating peas than in non-germinating peas. Temperature has a major impact on cellular respiration. As temperature increases, the respiration rates increase as well. For example, the peas in the ten degrees Celsius water performed cellular respiration at a slower rate than the peas placed in the room temperature water. These rates are directly proportional. Next, the non-germinating peas consumed much less oxygen than the germinating peas. This happened because the germinating peas need large amounts of oxygen to keep them alive. The KOH was placed in the vials to remove the carbon dioxide and make potassium carbonate. During respiration, oxygen is consumed and its volume is reduced to a solid. The result was a decrease in gas volume within the vial and a decrease in the pressure. Lastly, the respirometers with just the glass beads were the controls, which helped me calculate the corrected difference and get more accurate data. Lab five helped me understand controls and cellular respiration in many ways.
Even though this lab was very informative much went wrong during it. First off the temperatures of the ten degrees Celsius bath increased in temperature. This was due to forgetting to keep adding ice during the lab. When the temperature warmed up the water was allowed to leave the pipette, leaving my group with no water to record in the data table. Numerous others errors could have also thrown off our data such as the amount of peas, air going into the vials, and inaccurate timing.